The NBA as he knew it began to crumble apart. The owners he is paid (quite well) to represent began disappearing left and right. The top players in the league all migrated to the top teams in the league, turning cites into basketball wastelands. Players not getting paid, fans not showing up to games, and soon the NBA was left with only 12 teams with owners and complete rosters.

So David Stern did the one thing he does best: He began to lock everyone out.

He locks out the players. He locks out the remaining owners. He locks out concession workers, bus drivers, referees.

Until the NBA collapsed.

David Stern didn’t want this to be his legacy however. So he hired the best scientists he could find to answer a simple question; how can I build a long lasting league where a new owner will have an opportunity to fix a down on its luck franchise? A league with a deep enough player pool that teams can be rebuilt quickly?

The scientists decided that if the best players of all-time were to play in a capped progressive league, then it would be possible to for all teams to be competitive year in and year out. While experimenting, they discover a wormhole to a world where the best basketball players of all time reside in their primes. This leads to an even great discovery.

There are two of these worlds.

Two separate worlds, exact copies containing the greatest basketball players of all time. And on this day, the Parallel Progressive League (PPL) was born.

David Stern began work to find 12 owners to put together teams in each world. Not only could they compete amongst themselves in their worlds, they could also compete against each other to determine a champion every season. David Stern’s vision of a league with two Michael Jordans in separate conferences making money got him so excited that he had a heart attack and decided to retire immediately.

For the PPL to get off of the ground, two commissioners and 24 owners have to be found to pit the greatest players against each other… and themselves.

1.The two conferences will operate as their own 52 million dollar cap progressive leagues.This includes separate commissioners, statisticians, reporters, drafts, eligible player pools, free agency pools, and statistics. Trading across conferences is not allowed. I’m considering putting each conference in its own private forum, with all owners having access to both. Trash talk is encouraged across conferences.

2.Two commissioners will be needed. I’ll be the commissioner for one conference.Commissioner responsibilities will include running drafts, maintaining eligible player pools, rosters, contacting other owners when necessary, and anything else to keep the league moving. If multiple people want to be the second commissioner, I’ll go with whoever has the most experience.

3.A statistician and a reporter are requested for each conference.
This league will be more fun if there are story lines to follow. A statistician to keep track of team and individual player stats gives the team a sense of history and will be needed to distribute GCs. The statistician will also keep the running GC point total. A news feed thread, run by a reporter who could post stories occasionally about games in the league, would make things interesting. Owners are encouraged to have their own team pages in the forums as well.

4.The two initial drafts will be held simultaneously. Every offseason the two offseason drafts will also be held simultaneously.

5.At the end of every season cuts and trades can be made. An offseason draft will be held to replace retiring, injured, and cut players.

6.The owners participating in the initial draft have to buy a 5$ GC to put in a pot.This will be something that will be done as a league and not separate by conference. I will ask Whatifsports to match our 120. So hopefully 240 dollars in prizes to distribute based on a point system every 3-5 seasons. After 3-5 seasons, owners will have to buy in again. I will post a proposal of how to distribute the prize money and take suggestions. If an owner drops out, then they lose any possibility of receiving prize money. A new owner taking over a team will have to wait until the next time there is a buy in to participate. If the league dissolves at any point before a pot is split, 5$ GCs would be returned.

Player Drafting/Progression Rules

1.Drafted players will be exclusive within the conference.Obviously there will be two LBJs, two MJs, two Wilts ect, in the league; one in each conference.

2.Players will progress a year at a time from one season to the next.A drafted player can be yours from the time you draft him until the end of his career, season by season. Players can only progress forward in time.

3.A rookie player can start with any of his first three seasons in the WIS database.A rookie player is any player that has been drafted for the first time in a conference. During the initial draft, you do not have to decide which season you are using until after the draft when you post your roster. This is to give you flexibility in dealing with the draft/cap year one. During the off season drafts, you will have to post the year of the rookie player you are using when you draft him.

4.A cut player continues to progress seasons in the free agency pool.A player that has been cut is considered to be a veteran. Veterans continue to progress year to year even in the free agency/eligible player pool.

5.A player that misses a season (injuries, ect) can be placed on IR.
They will be eligible to return to your team when they play again.

6.A retired player…retires.
A retired player has run out of seasons in the WIS database. Active NBA players, whose career's are still ongoing, can be placed on IR if they run out of seasons until WIS releases new seasons. However, you must continue to list the player on IR and use them in the first season available or they will be put in the free agent pool.

The First Draft

1.Snake style: A B A B A B A B A B A BThe first pick in the draft will also get the 24th and 25th picks.

2.The initial draft order for each conference will be random.I’m not sure how to make it random and confirmable. We can go off of the lottery or there are websites that will give me a random order. Or ranked by last four digits on owner rating the night before the draft starts.

3.The first two rounds of the draft will be untimed.This is to ensure that everyone has a core to build off of, without being skipped. This may be untimed, but it is within reason. When this league starts, you're expected to be active in the draft. Within 48 hours of going on the clock without a pick, your team will likely be offered to another owner.

4.Rounds 3-10 will have will have one hour time slots between 10 am and 10 pm.With 12 teams in each draft, this should be a round a day for a week. Hopefully we can do it quicker than that and get ahead of schedule.

5.Rounds 11-12 will be on the same day with half hour time slots between 10 am and 10 pm.

6.Rounds 3-8: An owner that misses his time spot can be skipped by the next owner in line. The skipped owner can continued to be skipped until it’s their turn to pick again. Rounds 9-12: Owners can be skipped twice.An owner cannot be skipped twice. The draft will be stopped until a conclusion is met. I will ask for the GC’s before the draft, to ensure that no one drops out during the first draft after bombing a team.

7.Owners need to sitemail the next two people behind them in the draft order after picking.If you can’t, let everyone know when you pick. If you know you won’t be around for your draft spot, you can send a proxy to the next two owners behind you.

8. Initial draft picks can not be traded.
You can make a trade after the draft, before you post your roster, but don't hold the league up. I'm only allowing this really in case someone screws up and ends up way over the cap. Don't do that though.

9.After the first draft is complete, owners have to post their rosters in the private forums declaring what years they are going to use for their players.Stay under the 52 million cap!!! Please do this in a timely manner.

Offseason

1. Before an offseason draft, teams have to post their rosters to the Team Roster thread.Post who you are keeping, cutting, sending/returning to/from IR, how many picks do you need in the draft, and what is your team salary is before the draft. Cut players will be added to the draft pool.

2. Trades can be made after the season before the draft.
If you want to make a trade, you should probably start discussing it during the season. Trades must be completed before you submit your roster and we draft. 1st round draft picks can be traded. Players on IR can be traded. You can announce a trade ahead of time, to take place at the end of the season. Do that at your own risk because it won't be final until the end of the current season i.e. they can drop out of it or make another trade.

3. Have your roster set in a timely manner.It really shouldn't take longer than a week after the league championship for the next draft to start.

Offseason Drafts

1.Fixed style. A A A A ect.The lowest win team will get the highest pick in each round.

2.Teams will be slotted for the draft based on previous season performance.Tie breakers will be determined. No lottery. The GC's should be incentive enough to not tank.

3. Top 6 pick rule. If the player is considered to be a rookie, you can start their career during any season in their career. If the player is a veteran, recently cut or in the free agent pool the previous season, then you can resume their career from any season you want after the previous season. They will progress normally from there until they retire.

4. *Removed*

5.There will be two designated 239K players that can be drafted as “roster fillers”.Finding 239K roster fillers in a progressive that are rookies can be pain. Roster fillers are to be placed on rest and not on your depth chart. I’m considering a penalty if roster fillers play; but I tried to find two of the worst I can find (Willie Cunningham 98-99 and Rodrick Rhodes 98-99) so it will be punishment in itself if you play them. This is also designed to help keep teams under the cap; if you are close to the cap during a draft, you can just ask for one or two of the roster fillers. I’d consider adding a third; I’m ok with a team with a 9 man core. Roster fillers are ineligible to be drafted as exclusive players.

6.The first round will be untimed. 24 hours maximum limit before you can be skipped.

7.Rounds 2 and on will have one hour time slots between 10 am and 10 pm.Depending on how many picks teams need will determine the amount of rounds.

8.An owner can't be skipped in both the first and the second round.The draft will be stopped until a conclusion is met. After round 2, owners can be skipped twice.

9.Owners need to sitemail the next two people behind them in the draft order after picking.If you can’t, let everyone know when you pick. If you know you won’t be around for your draft spot, you can send a proxy to the next two owners behind you. This is to keep the draft moving… don’t be the guy everyone is waiting on if you can avoid it.

10.Be under the cap before and after the draft.
The point of the cap is keeping things competitive. There will have to be a penalty for having to cut players after the draft, because it doesn’t give the other owners in your conference a chance to draft them that season.

If I get 10 people and another commissioner signed on, I will ask the Whatifsports site staff for a couple of things. First, I will ask if we can change the conference and division names in the league. I want one conference to be World Jackson and the other to be World Auerbach; each with an East and West division. I will also ask if they will match our GC total, put out a league ad, and give us two private forums if it gets off of the ground.

There has been talk about a new progressive league, but nothing has been started. I like the drafting and planning of doing a progressive league and tried to develop this so that it can last multiple seasons without falling apart. I decided to take a chance and hopefully I didn’t waste my time typing this.

So… this is what I have so far and I want to give this league a shot. I’ll listen to suggestions, but a lot of this is how I would want it. I've sent out invitations to some owners that I think could be interested. I'm getting tired of working on this now so if I don’t sitemail you, and you’re still interested, let me know. But I will say this… don’t sign up unless you plan on seeing this through.

Nice job putting this together. You put some good thought into rules for abandonded or poorly run teams that may need to be taken over. Rosters should be loaded with 12 team drafts. Hopefully interest for this league is high. If it's getting close I would take a 2nd team if needed.

Posted by jcred5 on 1/13/2013 10:42:00 PM (view original):I'm in with Seattle. I'll also volunteer for reporter.

Nice job putting this together. You put some good thought into rules for abandonded or poorly run teams that may need to be taken over. Rosters should be loaded with 12 team drafts. Hopefully interest for this league is high. If it's getting close I would take a 2nd team if needed.

Thanks buddy.

Yeah I may give up on progressives if this doesn't get off the ground. So I tried to make it so that any new owner can jump on and put together a good squad. With the cap and only 12 teams per player pool, there are going to be really good undrafted players.

The draft won't be so simple that you can just take the best player available every round or you wont stay under the cap.